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The ghost of Rick McCosker’s jaw is never far away in Australian cricket. No matter what the injury, if you can perform, you should.

An Aussie batsman once told me he couldn’t sit in a chair at the end of the day’s play, but he still fielded the next day even though it was the fourth innings, just so his team-mates didn’t think he was soft. That is how it is in Australian cricket. The team comes first, your health second.

In the Women’s World Cup final, this couldn’t have been shown more obviously than when Ellyse Perry came on to bowl. Perry had missed a great deal of the tournament with an injured ankle. Her replacement, Holly Ferling, had done so well that Perry needn’t have been tested. But she is a star, and she wanted to help win the World Cup for her team. Australia took a gamble on her fitness.

With the bat, Perry’s ankle held up. She slogged her way to 25 off 22, the only Australian batsman with a strike rate above 100, and woke up an innings that was dipping into a coma.

When she came on to bowl, West Indies had handled the new ball well. They’d built a platform, not lost a wicket, and still had Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin to come. Australia needed Perry.

Instead of steaming in and firing through the openers, Perry barely got to the crease for her first attempt. She pulled up, limped and looked worried. As did every other Australian player. It didn’t look like she’d get through a ball, let alone an over. The second attempt was much the same. It ended in no delivery, pain and worry.

It was then that the captain Jodie Fields shot a look off to the dressing room. It wasn’t a happy look. Australia’s gamble was about to cost them ten overs of a strike bowler, and Fields was suddenly trying to work out how she was going to make up for that. Perry could have limped off. An injured ankle for a fast bowler is death.

But Perry refused to give up. Her third attempt was painful to watch, it was someone hurting, someone who didn’t trust her body, but somehow she delivered a ball. Nothing great, but one more than looked likely. Her team-mates screamed their support. The ball was left alone and went through to Fields, who kept the ball and ran up to Perry. It was the briefest of chats, perhaps just mindless support. Fields knew how important every ball Perry bowled was. It was the difference between West Indies having a chance to win, and not. Whatever was said got Perry through the over.

With her sixth ball, Perry took Kycia Knight with a dodgy lbw. Perry’s seventh took the edge of West Indies’ gun, Taylor, but the evidence on the catch at slip was inconclusive. Perry’s tenth ball, she had Taylor out caught and bowled. Perry’s 15th was Natasha McLean’s wicket. After three overs Perry had 3-2-2-3.

Perry might have limped her way through it, but it was West Indies who never recovered. She could have stepped back from there. The job was done, the clichés were ready, and the game was just playing out to what was a fairly predictable result. She could have been hidden in the field, stood back on one leg, and let the rest of her team cash in on her brilliance.

She wouldn’t allow herself to become a passenger. Perry kept giving it her all. She raced around for run-outs, dived to stop singles, threw herself threw into the air unsafely, unwisely and ungainly to catch Deandra Dottin. And continued to bowl.

Perry bowled her entire ten overs, often limping in between balls or overs, but she just kept going until Australia had won the World Cup. In her last over, Perry bowled a bouncer. It was a special effort, courageous and skillful.

An injured ankle is not quite as sexy as McCosker’s broken jaw but what Perry did deserved to be added to illustrious list of Australian cricket propaganda.

It’ll start as a gutsy effort that won a game Australia should have always won. Yet, in a few years time, as people forget the details and just remember the result, it’ll be known as the World Cup Ellyse Perry won on one leg.

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Outside of the semi-professional ranks of England, Australia and New Zealand, women’s cricket is a disgrace. Almost every team is a minnow.

South Africa should be disgusted at the lack of funds and professionalism its women team has. India is allowing its women’s cricket to dry up. West Indies have only started taking it seriously since two players showed talent. Pakistan should be promoting heroes in all walks of life. And when we are constantly told that Bangladesh is cricket crazy, where are their women?

The ICC hasn’t been good enough on this either.

Paying the women less per diems at the World Twenty20 was wrong, and sent a terrible message. The organisation of this tournament has been amateur. And why hasn’t the ICC forced all countries to turn their women’s teams into professional outfits. No Test playing nation should receive any revenue from ICC tournaments if they do not intend to use at least five percent of it on women’s cricket.

It’s 2013, and this is a billion-dollar game. The Women’s World Cup is being transmitted around the world, these women deserve to be paid and treated like professional athletes. And if you want to know the difference between amateur women’s cricket, and professional women’s cricket, you just have to watch a replay of Sri Lanka’s win over England.

In the last World Cup, the Sri Lankan women were horrible. They looked like a club team that had been cobbled together and told to play in a World Cup for their country.

Someone in the Sri Lankan government must have been embarrassed by that.

You won’t get a bigger critic of the Sri Lankan government’s treatment of cricket. They approve the selections, place old politicians in the teams, and have generally held back Sri Lankan cricket on and off the field with their own politics. But, one of them also made the decision that today, led to their women winning their first ever match against England, the World Champions.

That decision was to move women’s cricketers into the armed forces. Allowing them to dedicate their entire working life to becoming better cricketers. Today the proof was right on the screen.

The Sri Lankan team were chasing 239, their openers built a foundation, one hitting, the other blocking. They gave their middle order a chance, and then at No. 7 a woman Eshani Kaushalya came in and took seven balls to get off the mark. At first I thought she was out of her depth. I thought that perhaps Sri Lanka had a few decent top-order players and their middle order had nothing.

Then Kaushalya hit out. She took the spinners back over their heads, she slogged when she had to, and much like when Kevin O’Brien slogged the men’s team, the England women completely lost the plot.

England were never supposed to be in a competitive game. They were playing a minnow. Just turning out and executing their skill sets, as the cricketers say, would be enough. Now they were being slogged around the park by a middle-order Sri Lankan with an average of 15, with one fifty to her name and two sixes in her 47 match career.

England’s cricket world collapsed. The English girls usually field like hawks, now they were fielding like a Sunday pub side. Jenny Gunn is usually frugal and hard to get away; she was tossing up dribble ball after ball. Elwiss dropped a catch that she’s taken in fielding practice 10,000 times.

Earlier on the Sri Lankan girls would have hoped for a plucky display and some sort of moral victory that they weren’t minnows anymore. Instead they crashed into the last over needing nine runs to win.

The last over was amazing.

Starting with a single to short fine leg to Surangika, Sri Lanka needed eight to win from five balls, and Kaushalya was on 49 from 39 balls.

Instead of showing any nerves, Kaushalya smacked a six over square leg. She celebrated like she had won the game, when in fact they still needed two from four.

The next ball Kaushalya tried to do the same thing, but hit it straight up in the air. The ball took a while to come down, and while it did, Kaushalya was smart enough to remain in Elwiss’ eyeline as she was about to take the chance that could have won England the game. Instead, she dropped it.

England briefly complained that Kaushalya had obstructed the field, but the replays showed Kaushalya had played it brilliantly, running off the pitch and in the general direction of Elwiss without ever actually getting in her way. Genius cricket, and tieing the scores.

The next ball she was run out when Surangika smacked the ball straight to mid-off, and Kaushalya ran, and Surangika did not. England had enough of their composure left to complete the run-out with ease.

Now Sri Lanka were nine wickets down – the scores were tied – and Surangika, the Sri Lankan keeper who has batted in every position from 3-11, had to score one run for victory off the last two balls.

She smacked the penultimate ball straight to point, no run. Instead of coming down to chat to her partner, she walked off to square leg to get rid of her frustration.

Now the game was set up perfectly. Underdogs up against the powerhouse of their sport, the reigning champions. Nine wickets down. Scores tied. A game televised around the world.

Surangika dealt with that by hitting a six. Her first ever international six. To win the first ever game against England for her country.

It was not an exciting game of women’s cricket, it was exciting cricket. It was about as far from a disgrace as you can get.

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Nineteen off 21, 11 off 11, 23 off 25, 21 off 25 and 19 off 22. It’s a start for Australia, but not much more.

Meg Lanning, Jess Cameron, Lisa Sthalekar, Alex Blackwell and Jodie Fields all looked good at times, but none kicked on, in strike-rate or total. It was like they all had an invisible wall they would run into as they approached 25. It meant that the total of 115 was just within reach of West Indies, even without Stafanie Taylor or Deandra Dottin adding anything to the total.

It was the Australian bowlers, led by the miserly Sthalekar and the wicket-taking Perry, who made 115 look far more impressive than it was.

The important thing is the Aussies still won, and made the final. The worrying thing is that not a single Australian batsman has made a half-century in this tournament. In fact, the highest score is 42. Forty-two. It’s not what you expect to see of a team which has made it through to the final. It’s what you expect of a team that didn’t even qualify for the semis.

India, who didn’t qualify for the semis, have a 50 in this tournament from Poonam Raut.
Australia is clearly the second-best team in this tournament; West Indies and New Zealand both have good players, India has Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, and Sri Lanka, South Africa and Pakistan are a level below at this stage. But England just look far ahead.

England barely worked up a sweat while beating Australia and New Zealand easily in their last two games. When their batsmen get in, they make big fast scores, generally in match-winning partnerships. For some reason, the Australians are not doing that. It’s not like their batting line-up lacks talent. Lanning is a very good player, Cameron can smack the ball, Sthalekar is pure class, Blackwell holds the middle order together, Healy strikes well and Fields plays like Australian wicketkeepers have for decades. But you don’t win many finals with a run-a-ball 20-odd.

On a pitch with little spin, acting was slow and low, West Indies choked Australia with 10 overs of spin to start the match. It wasn’t a tactic especially to slow Australia, just something the Windies had been using all tournament, but Australia never really handled it well. There were some boundaries, and some singles, but not enough of either, and never a good combination of both.

The West Indies bowlers were all decent, and they worked well together, but Australia should have scored far more. Jodie Fields said they would have been happier with 140. They shouldn’t have lost as many wickets as they did. They should have worked the often-strange field placements of the West Indies. They should have just done better.

Australia have one last chance to get it right, but they won’t be playing the plucky West Indies side, they’ll be playing the most brutal and unforgiving team in world cricket. A team full of match-winners, who all know their roles, and who will expect to win the tournament they have dominated so far. They are talented, well schooled and the most professional team in women’s cricket. To beat them, you need to be at your very best. A succession of super-fast cameos might help you win. An epic innings often will.

Australia may be the reigning champions and these conditions might be different to Galle, but they will need to significantly improve on this performance to make the final a fair fight. Stacking up another pile of 20 odds won’t do it.

Result: Arisa Mohammad: One step into her run up, she leaps into their air with her arms touching the sky, then skins in, and bowls round arm finger spin off what appears to be from the wrong foot a mile back from the crease. Awesome.

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New Zealand have been in the last two World T20 finals, losing both, one to Australia and one to England. They lost to Australia from the last ball, and fought hard after making an under-par score against the English. They were well drilled, well lead and played consistently good cricket. They were good with the ball, in the field or when batting. They were not a team of champions, but a team that played consistently good cricket.

In this tournament they have not.

Having already lost to the West Indies in the qualifying rounds, essentially limping towards the semi-final, they were not expected to dominate the best team in women’s cricket, but at least hold their own.

Instead they were easily outplayed in almost every way.

Their fielding was poor by their standards, a great sliding throw and overhead catch would take much of the focus away from their fumbling and the keeper, Katey Martin, letting balls straight through her legs.

With the ball they tried hard, but lacked any key weapons. Nicola Browne started well early on, and Erin Bermingham landed some good deliveries, but neither ever looked like breaking through.

It was with the bat the kiwis were really bad. Amy Satterthwaite was the only batsmen who stayed in for any length of time, but her 30 off 39 was scratchy and she struggled to get enough singles or boundaries to put England under any pressure. They struggled against the pace of Katherine Brunt and the spin of Danni Wyatt and Holly Colvin. They couldn’t manoeuvre the ball around, seemed to lack power to blast through and at no stage did they look like making a score that would challenge England at all.

They even managed to miss out on a wicket because of a back-foot no ball. It couldn’t have gone much further wrong for them.

Perhaps the only part of the game they looked on par with England was in captaincy. Suzie Bates is one of the best leaders in world cricket and tactically she is arguably as good as any playing captain around. She refused to give up, and instead of allowing easy singles, which is the modern captain’s way, she regularly kept up to six players inside the circle to choke England and make them play the big shots.

Bates’ tactics kept England batting for longer than they wanted and pushed the game into the 18th over with ring fields and attacking moves. At one stage she even used Browne to bowl short to England, hoping for a mistimed pull shot from Taylor, that they got, but it didn’t go to hand. It was desperate, and didn’t get the result New Zealand needed, which was a miracle after their disastrous batting display, started by Bates with a horrendous run out for a duck.

It was a pitch that even with 20 or 30 runs more, perhaps, Bates’ tricks might have been enough. Although it is hard to see where they could have found 20 or 30 more runs as they didn’t ever handle the conditions all that well.

New Zealand have been a very strong team for a long time. Failing to get to the final should be the motivation that they need to get the most out of this young squad. They are young, talented, play as a team and are magnificently led.

They owe it to themselves to do better than simply be the team England ease past on their way to the final.

It was with the bat the kiwis were really bad. Amy Satterthwaite was the only batsmen who stayed in for any length of time, but her 30 off 39 was scratchy and she struggled to get enough singles or boundaries to put England under any pressure. They struggled against the pace of Katherine Brunt and the spin of Dani Wyatt and Holly Colvin. They couldn’t manoeuvre the ball around, seemed to lack power to blast through and at no stage did they look like making a score that would challenge England at all.

They even managed to miss out on a wicket because of a back-foot no ball. It couldn’t have gone much further wrong for them.

Perhaps the only part of the game they looked on par with England was in captaincy. Suzie Bates is one of the best leaders in world cricket and tactically she is arguably as good as any playing captain around. She refused to give up, and instead of allowing easy singles, which is the modern captain’s way, she regularly kept up to six players inside the circle to choke England and make them play the big shots.

Bates’ tactics kept England batting for longer than they wanted and pushed the game into the 18th over with ring fields and attacking moves. At one stage she even used Browne to bowl short to England, hoping for a mistimed pull shot from Taylor, that they got, but it didn’t go to hand. It was desperate, and didn’t get the result New Zealand needed, which was a miracle after their disastrous batting display, started by Bates with a horrendous run out for a duck.

It was a pitch that even with 20 or 30 runs more, perhaps, Bates’ tricks might have been enough. Although it is hard to see where they could have found 20 or 30 more runs as they didn’t ever handle the conditions all that well.

New Zealand have been a very strong team for a long time. Failing to get to the final should be the motivation that they need to get the most out of this young squad. They are young, talented, play as a team and are magnificently led.

They owe it to themselves to do better than simply be the team England ease past on their way to the final.

But if you watched women’s cricket you’d know that Suzie Bates is a motherfucken superstar captain.

Today her side limped along to 90 odd.

They struggled to get the ball off the square, and Bates ran herself out for a duck.

They had no right to keep England in the field for more than 10 overs.

And they certainly don’t have a barnstorming burn your house down attack.

But they have Suzie Bates.

And Suzie Bates can captain.

Suzie Bates can captain so much that on a slowish Sri Lankan pitch she brought up mid on and mid off whilst getting her opening bowler Nicola Browne to try and bounce out the world’s best T20 batsman Sarah Taylor.

It almost worked.

How often would a women’s captain defending 90odd in a T20 decide to bounce out the oppositions best batsman?

I’m guessing never, because I’m sure it’s never.

That is Susie Bates. That is why you should know who Suzie Bates is.

When you’re sitting in front of your TV or illegal stream screaming at your team’s captain for sitting back and letting team milk singles as they wander head first into an inevitable victory, I want you to know that Suzie Bates wouldn’t do that.

She would try shit, bring people up, do some weird shit and create something. She is by far my favourite captain in world cricket.

Susie Bates is only 25, you need to start following the kiwi women’s team before she becomes an old battle scarred captain who puts people out on the rope if someone hints at playing a shot.

Results: England go through with ease. Holly Colvin was the first international player I ever interviewed.

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The opening game of this tournament was held where only one group would be playing, miles from any other side, and against a team that doesn’t draw a crowd.

In the first four days of the tournament no major sides played each other.

The group stages are pointless as shown by the fact that West Indies didn’t complete a match and still progressed.

And this tournament is looking more and more likely not to be shaped by mystery spinners and top order sloggers, but by the rainy season.

TV presenters, experts, writers and people in lounge rooms and bars across the cricket world have talked a lot about these errors from the ICC.

The biggest mistake so far in the tournament was far easier to fix and spot than any of the above, it was someone’s decision to pay women cricketers less than men’s cricketers in their daily allowance.

There is no way that was ever going to be looked upon well if it got out. Basically because there is no way of saying the men, who are all well paid fully professional cricketers, need an extra US$40 a day than the nearly exclusively amateur women cricketers.

Brand Dhoni is worth over 50 million dollars. The Sri Lanka women’s team were drafted into the armed forces so they could afford to continue to play cricket.

There’s no doubt that women’s cricket is funded by the men’s game. Women’s cricket is an amateur sport. As such it’s not taken as seriously as it should be. It can’t get on TV enough because it’s not seen as a high quality or popular sport, and it can’t become professional without the money that sport gets from being TV. It’s trapped in dependency.

For many reasons, women’s cricket has not been taken seriously by all the cricket countries, some cultural, and some financial.

The English women are quickly becoming professional, with Australia not far behind, the New Zealand team has always been strong and India has some of the best players on earth. For too long these four teams have been far too good for the other sides. Now that may be changing. West Indies is building a very strong side and South Africa have started winning games. Women’s cricket may finally have proper competition at the upper levels.

But it’s in India that shows you how far it has to go.

Sania Mirza, the tennis player, has never won a grand slam in singles, she has never been beyond the fourth round in a grand slam. Her ranking has never been higher than No. 27 in singles or No. 7 in doubles. Her greatest achievement is winning the mixed doubles at the Australian and French Opens.

Mithali Raj is the world’s No. 1 ranked ODI batsman, she’s No. 3 in T20 cricket (formerly No. 1). Her Test batting average is 52, in ODI cricket it’s 47 and in T20 it’s 34. She lives in the most cricket crazy place on earth. And is less famous, respected and adulated than Sania Mirza by the population at large.

That’s because women’s tennis does make its own money, it is professional and people take it seriously. Women’s cricket is none of these at the moment.

That doesn’t mean things can’t change. It is ironic that moronic mistakes like paying two different rates for per diems is what sometimes start to changes things, but giving the women US$100 a day instead of US$60 is not going to change the larger issues of how to grow women’s cricket. Until women’s cricket is a viable TV option, the prize money and wages are never going to be anything close to equal.

Right now the women’s tournament is underway. The group stage is being played in Galle and not shown on TV. The only reporters who are covering it are the ones who have travelled here for that alone. There are not many of those. In Kandy and Colombo there are many cricket fans and media who have little to do on days between cricket. Had the women not been hidden away until the semi-final stage they could have got bigger crowds and more coverage, instead of enjoying the beaches of Galle.

Many people abuse or laugh at women’s cricket, but I love it. The relative lack of power in the batting means a much more pure form of cricket. This also brings out the strategy from the captains a lot more. Suzie Bates and Charlotte Edwards are masters of manipulation. I saw seven matches at the World T20 in the UK, and my strongest memories are of Stuart Broad failing to field in the last over against Netherlands, and Claire Taylor’s surgery of Australia’s fielders in the women’s semi-final.

Women cricketers are playing the game simply because they love it; not for financial rewards or fame, but because they simply want to be the best they can and represent their country in the sport they love. They often have to leave the game early because they simply can’t afford to continue to play.

If Mithali Raj was a male cricketer she wouldn’t need that extra US$40 a day. But since tuk tuk drivers and restaurants don’t offer 40% off for women cricketers, neither should the ICC.

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This year it was at Lord’s, which you may have heard of. This meant I got to play at Lord’s on the Nursery ground (you can’t have everything) with several members of the English Women’s Cricket team.

My team was captained by Claire Taylor, yes Claire fucken TAYLOR, best batsman in the world Claire Taylor.

She also kept wickets, I stood next to her at slip. It was just me and Clare Taylor in the cordon at Lord’s. For all of 3 balls.

Then I bowled to Danielle Hazell as Claire Taylor kept and shouted encouragement to me, I think, she had a mouth guard on. She could have been saying anything. Probably “pitch it up, idiot”.

Later on Claire Taylor and I talked tactics, batting order and how I should bowl.

Ofcourse the day wasn’t all great. Danielle Hazell did hit me over the training nets. Although she hit someone else further. Later on I was hit for six by another English women’s player, I forget who, which is a shame because I then got her out.

Legspin wise I did pull a few down. But I’m a club spinner playing at Lord’s, I am supposed to pull a few down.

My other wicket was that of Rob Hawk, from Hawk bats, which might have ruined my sponsorship deal with him.

There were other highlights. Lawrence Booth flailing wildly with his eyes closed trying to imitate Wes Durston and somehow hitting a six of Simon Briggs. Andrew Miller playing and missing at five balls straight of a last over before finishing off with a six. And Rosalie Birch’s batting, which was pretty good for a retiree. Rosalie works for chance to shine, and I think she would agree, that playing with me was her chance to shine.

My favourite moment had to be when I burnt Anya Shrubsole when running between wickets with her. She made a diamond duck, but it was her fault. These professional cricketers just don’t back up. I can’t see how it could be my fault for hitting the ball straight to Cricket With Balls’ Holly Colvin and taking off. Anya was a good sport about it, she only spent the next 2 hours telling everyone I had run her out. Some people can’t face up to the truth.

I made up for it in the next over when I edged a ball of Jenny Gunn for the winning runs of the tournament. Although had a stuffed up the chase I would have questioned Jenny Gunn’s action in true aussie style.

It was a good day, but this photo of Andrew Miller and John Stern making sweet cricket love was really wrong.

This post was written by Jarrod Kimber, who recently hit the winning runs in a final at Lord’s.

Sorry to break you out of your Ashes coma, but there are three other test matches going on at the moment.

WI vs. BAN

West Indies have dirty scabby strikebreakers playing for them, and if that isn’t bad enough the one I really wanted to see. Kraigg Brathwaite, isn’t fucking playing.

The scabs are pretty much a West Indies 3rd XI, and they are slightly ahead of Bangladesh, who have to win this game to prove they aren’t’ the genital wart of the cricket world.

PAK vs. SRI

Having lost the last game in a dramatically flamboyant style, Pakistan decided to keep that going and collapse on the first day of the next test as well. 90 runs on the first day of a test match. Special.

Sri Lanka are now looking good for a 2 zip result, and being that their bowling line up looks like decidedly nameless, that is a top effort.

ENG vs. AUS WOMEN

The Australian women were 5/28, and I was ready to go around and punch them all, then they were 6/257 and I was quite happy.

England are now 5/120 with a lot to do, but have a 60 run partnership going. A women’s test is a special thing, as they are lucky to play one a year.

NED vs. CAN

Netherlands are playing Canada as well, in what I assume is called the Dirty Dirk Davison cup. Had I known about this series I would have sponsored it. Although if I did, I would have spent months trying to work out what to call it.